Board hears student health advocates

On Tuesday, the Wahkiakum School District Board of Directors voted to approve an interlocal agreement to borrow $500,000 from Wahkiakum County in order to begin security and technology improvements on the school campus.

The board heard from a trio of students about a new program, discussed the teachers dress code and heard reports from their principals and superintendent.

Seniors Jessica Thomas, Kylie Thomason and junior Rory Heywood gave a quick presentation on their activities this year as Community Health Advocates, along with their program advisor, Wahkiakum County Public Health Nurse, Danelle Barlow.

“These three students are interested in the medical field,” Wahkiakum High School Principal Stephanie Leitz said in an introduction. “They applied for a student position that is a cooperative effort with the county and a few other agencies. The idea is to train youth on common health care issues, problems, and resources so students can use them as a resource.”

“There is a kid team and an adult team,” Heywood said. “Kids have an easier time talking to kids. We talked about what issues needed to change. One thing that came up a lot was sexual education.”

“It goes a little deeper and expands on what is already taught,” Thomas said. “It’s not necessarily adding new stuff. People don’t always ask questions because they are uncomfortable asking teachers.”

“When it comes to sex ed, students already share information with each other but it’s not always accurate,” Thomason added.

“They will work in a partnership with the school nurse and the Charlotte House,” Leitz said, “which does a lot of teaching on sexual violence and healthy dating.”

Superintendent Bob Garrett updated the school board on the loan they had discussed taking in order to make security and technology upgrades this summer.

“At today's county commissioner meeting, the commissioners did approve front funding the $500,000, and that will take place April 29,” Garrett said. “We have been working for the last few months trying to make sure we have as much in place as we can so a good chunk of this project can take place this summer.”

Garrett had more good news.

“We applied for a $15,000 USDA grant to go towards the purchase of the digital radio system. I got the tentative okay on that today,” Garrett said.

The radios will be used on buses and playgrounds and in different areas around the schools.

The school board approved the 2015-2016 calendar and discussed the staff dress code, after one board member had heard some complaints. The principals will meet with staff for dialogue and the school board will revisit the issue at a later date.

Principal Theresa Libby reported that eighth graders would soon be going to Cispus and that there would be a lot of testing till the end of the year.

She also had good news. The state offered the school two pallets worth of computers.

“In two days, we had more than 90 new computers,” she said. “We will swap out computers in the lab as they go bad, put more into classrooms and maybe build another lab in our library.

It was really exciting.”

Leitz reported that seniors had turned in their portfolios on Monday.

“It was pretty exciting,” Leitz said. “It’s quite entertaining to see this place right before a big due date like that. It was buzzing.”

She also shared that they had held freshman orientation last week.

“I’ve never seen an orientation program like you have here,” School Board Member Paula Culbertson said. “It’s really good.”

Garrett reported that enrollment had gone down by two students. The average for the year is 452 full time enrollment. Garrett had budgeted for 402 full time enrollment and continues to be pleased with the turnout.

He reported that the filing period for school board positions is the week of May 11.

The next meeting is scheduled for May 19 at 5:30 p.m.